US Announces Exemptions From High Tariffs Against Foreign Steel

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, June 08, 2002

US Announces Exemptions From High Tariffs Against Foreign Steel

The US government announced Friday that it has decided to exempt 61 imported steel products from hefty tariffs that U.S. President George W. Bush imposed in March to help ailing U.S. steelmakers.

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The US government announced Friday that it has decided to exempt 61 imported steel products from hefty tariffs that U.S. President George W. Bush imposed in March to help ailing U.S. steelmakers.

The US Department of Commerce said the products receiving exemptions amount to about 1 percent of the 13 million tons of steel imports covered by Bush's decision to impose protective tariffs on March 5.

It said the 61 products covered 136,000 metric tons of steel imports last year. Theses products were excluded because U.S. producers failed to produce them in sufficient quantities to meet demand in the United States.

US commerce officials said these exemptions would be followedby further announcements of products to be excluded from tariffs in coming weeks. Bush set a deadline of July 3 for decisions on aninitial group of 470 exemption requests.

Bush's decision to impose high tariffs against imported steel is threatening to set off a global trade war. The European Union has released hit lists of U.S. products that could be subject to retaliatory tariffs as soon as July. Other countries including Japan have also threatened retaliation.

A US trade official said the Bush administration hoped its careful consideration of exemption requests would prompt U.S. trading partners to reconsider their threats to impose retaliatorytariffs on American products.

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